Cave Frescoes @ Sirigiya

These beautiful cave frescoes, painted into a niche about halfway up the rock, are one of the most famous aspects of the rock. Theories on what the women represent: King Kasyapa’s concubines; celestial nymphs; or, perhaps the most current theory, aspects of Tara Devi, the consort of Avalokitsvara (a Boddhisatva) and, says the book, an important figure in Tantric Buddhism. Go figure. The big image is rather illegal, as my flash unintentionally went off. The spiral staircases go up to and then back down from the niche where the paintings are.